Thursday, 6 December 2018

Just something to keep in mind when using Symbols and Detail
Components.

When you are cropping views there is a subtle difference
between Symbols and Detail Components. A Symbol will not be cropped by a Crop
Boundary (only by an Annotation Crop,) where as a Detail Component will be
cropped.

Tuesday, 27 November 2018

When you are using 3D CAD files in your Revit models,
whether it is for a topography, an existing building or a piece of furniture,
one thing you might notice is that if you place a section marker that cuts the
3D CAD files it won’t show as being cut and even worse it will show the full
extent of the CAD model, even if parts of it are behind the section mark.

To get the 3D CAD file showing properly in section, you have
to import the 3D CAD file in an In-Place family.

Create a new In-Place Component Family selecting the
Category most appropriate, and then Import the 3D CAD file. Finish the In-Place
Family.

Now the section will show properly. Just remember the cut
line work will now take on the style of the category.

This procedure also work by inserting the CAD file into an external component family.

Thursday, 15 November 2018

With all of our projects utilising shared coordinates, it
means that we are linking our sites into the building models. This process can
result in a little Revit anomaly in some section views, it doesn’t happen with
all views or projects and can occur quite randomly.

In your section view the topography from your linked model
disappears for no apparent reason, even though it is visible in the model in
all other views.

If this ever occurs in your sectional view, check your ‘Far
Clipping’ setting in the View Properties. If the Far Clipping is set to ‘Clip
with Line’ it can make the topography in the linked file disappear (sometimes).
If the ‘Far Clipping’ in the View Properties is set to ‘Clip without line’ (or
‘No Clip’) then the topography will become visible again.

Thursday, 1 November 2018

When you place spot elevations on your floor plan, if you try and place them on ramps you will notice that this isn't possible using the spot elevation tool.

It is possible to place them on elevations and section but plans it isn't possible......or is it?A simple work around is to place the spot elevation onto a floor and then move or copy it onto the ramp and magically it will host itself to the ramp levels.

Tuesday, 16 October 2018

Voids can be a very useful object in complex form modelling.
If you need to create a complex structural form you can use the edges of the
void as a path to help host sweeps. As the void is negative space it won’t be
visible in the final model.

It is a lot easier to create paths on the edges of a void
form rather than having to try and create the path as a line. This is evident
when you have to distort the path in 3 directions, (It is possible to do it
using an adaptive family with points and splines, but is just so much simpler
to use a void).In the example I am using an extruded blend to create my
void form.Once you have the edges looking correct, just host a sweep
to the edges using the ‘Pick Path’ and your complex form is finished.

Sunday, 7 October 2018

A very effective way of rendering your design model is to
assign a balsa wood material (or white card material) to all elements. Instead
of having to engage in a time consuming process of saving a design model and
reassigning materials, there is a very quick and easy process to gain the
desired result.

Tuesday, 2 October 2018

When you are using the Dimension tool in your model,
sometimes the dimension text will be placed where it overlaps with the
dimension line or ‘Tick’ mark. It is easy enough to move the dimension text
away by selecting the blue dot at the bottom of the dimension text.

The result will leave you with a leader line back to the
middle of the dimension line. If you want to remove it from the Dimension
string, just look at the Options Bar and untick the ‘Leader’ tick box. This
will remove it from the entire dimension string.

Unfortunately, the leader is turned on by default in all
dimensions. If you want to turn it off in all the dimensions in your project
you can select any dimension string and right-click, this will bring up the
option to ‘Select All Instances’ > ‘In Entire Project’. Then you can turn
off the leaders to all dimensions of that type.